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Harry Kane equals Sir Bobby Charlton's goal record as England squeeze past Switzerland
There are still seven more England games until Qatar next November and at least Gareth Southgate can say that he knows a bit more about what will not work, as the clock ticks down to a World Cup finals that needs a team certain of its own identity.
By the end Harry Kane had won the game with a penalty that took him one more step up the ladder to greatness, this time to sit alongside Sir Bobby Charlton on 49 England goals, a place in the history of the England team that was Charlton’s alone for 45 years. But it will be hard for Southgate to ignore how flat it had been before then, in a first half where the three-man defence and wing-back system that he has returned to of late yielded one of the more forgettable England performances in recent memory.
The vicissitudes of international football. The last week has put new perspective on the events of the summer of 2021 when Southgate found himself castigated for coming second in the tactical grapple with Roberto Mancini, the Italy coach whose side will not be in Qatar. In the first half, Southgate tried something different, but England could not penetrate Switzerland, and they could barely occupy the territory they normally do as a matter of course.
That was a strange half, which to Southgate’s credit he started to put right at half-time and then reassembled his team after the hour with the introduction of more of the big hitters. That saw a switch to a 4-2-3-1 system and the arrival of the likes of Raheem Sterling, Jack Grealish and Declan Rice to hold the ball better and force Switzerland back.
Southgate admitted afterwards that the initial team shape was a means to an end. He wanted to spread the load across his squad over these two games and he saw this as the best way of accommodating the players he had.
He paired Phil Foden and Kane in attack in the first half and later said that their tendency to press the ball early had been a problem. “The front two were too quick to press the centre-backs which can open up too much space,” he said, “the switch [from one wing to the other] can be a problem.”
It was notable that just this small detail seemed to ruin England’s shape. On top of that, the goal scored by Breel Embolo midway through the half was quite a mess – on multiple occasions England just failed to get the ball away.
It was a different kind of side, with three debuts over the course of the evening - Kyle Walker-Peters and Marc Guehi in the starting XI and then later Tyrick Mitchell. Ben White was a late inclusion in the side when John Stones felt some “tightness” in the warm-up, Southgate said later. The Arsenal defender has not played for England since before the Euro 2020 finals.
There was also a first start for Conor Gallagher, and Southgate would later say that was important. He said he needed to see this England team without either Rice or Kalvin Phillips in central midfield – both of them key figures in the Euro 2020 cycle of build-up and tournament.
Gallagher is a man whose energy seems to urge the game on into new phases, whether it is ready or not. His speciality is the midfield ambush which can turn the most mundane situations into moments of promise. There were a couple of those, especially in the second half where he was able to set Kane free or later surprise Granit Xhaka when the Swiss captain had assumed he had more time. Gallagher could have been “a bit tidier” in his passing, Southgate said. England’s search for a perfect midfield balance is still ongoing.
A bad first half for England was rescued in the first minute of injury-time by a muscular strike from Luke Shaw, running unchallenged onto a ball in the area. Until then Shaw, and his fellow wing-back Walker-Peters, had barely been seen in attacking positions in the opposition area and, when finally they were, the effect was profound. For the most part this first half performance had been a cause for concern for Southgate who had retreated to his seat and entered into discussion with his assistant Steve Holland.
This experienced Switzerland team, who qualified above Italy in their World Cup qualifying group, know how to manage a game. In the first half, Foden spent more time chasing the ball than with it at his feet. England failed to dominate the ball and never got up the pitch to settle into the passing patterns that might stretch Switzerland.
More than once Jordan Pickford made good saves, of the kind the Everton man is adept at – spotting the ball through a crowd of players. The best was moments after the Swiss goal when he got a strong left hand to the shot of Fabian Frei and pushed the ball onto the bar.
Embolo’s goal looked like it should have been ruled out by Var with Silvan Widmer in an offside position when he received the ball earlier in the move. The Swedish referee Andreas Ekberg was told there was no case to answer. Even so, Xherdan Shaqiri's cross onto Embolo’s head was virtually unchallenged.
The equaliser was unexpected. It was a rare lack of composure among the Swiss, and some pressure from Foden that led to the pass being intercepted by Walker-Peters. From there to Gallagher and on to Shaw for the finish.
The big change came on the hour: five substitutions including Rice, Sterling, Grealish. With it came a switch from the original 3-5-2 to 4-2-3-1. White moved out to right-back and immediately England looked more solid, capable of moving the ball in more advanced positions. Grealish, Kane, Sterling are possession-confident footballers, and when they have the ball they take some moving off it.
Even so it needed another Var check for the penalty to be awarded and for the referee Ekberg to see a blatant handball under the new law by one of the Swiss substitutes, Steven Zuber. Kane’s shot went low to the goalkeeper Jonas Omlin’s right, as is the England captain’s preference, struck hard and right into the side netting. It rarely fails.